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Every year, Time magazine gets swamped with pitches from thousands of companies, all convinced their product deserves to be included in Time's "25 Best Inventions" list. This past December, the magazine reserved its cover for a Pixar-like, 11-inch armless robot named Jibo. Jibo - a so-called "social robot" - is just the latest example of a clear phenomenon: A new generation of exponentially more intelligent and capable robots is on the way. In fact, they're already everywhere we look: over our heads, in our cars and operating rooms, next to us on the assembly lines, in our military, and on the last mile. And the prospect of exponentially more robots, crunching exponentially more data, necessitates not just a lot more computing power but also an entirely new product architecture."

"Truth Decay - the diminishing role that facts, data, and analysis play in political and civil discourse - appears to result, in part, from an increasingly complex information ecosystem. Technology, in particular, offers continual access to information of varying quality and credibility, information that can blur the line between fact-based evidence and opinion. Not everyone is equipped with the skills necessary to navigate such uncertain terrain. The purpose of this report is to describe the field of media literacy (ML) education and the ways in which ML education can counter Truth Decay by changing how participants consume, create, and share information. One limitation of this research base arises from the variety of ways that literature defines and measures ML outcomes; while a multiplicity of viewpoints can be beneficial, it also presents challenges in terms of aggregating findings across studies. Despite this, the authors describe existing evidence that ML could be a useful tool for combating Truth Decay. They also provide an inventory of ML offerings available to the public. Finally, the authors make suggestions for moving forward, with the specific recommendation that professionals in ML and related fields strengthen their communication and collaboration, considering where there are opportunities for a common approach to researching ML. The authors recommend that policymakers and practitioners increase participation from diverse constituencies in scaling ML efforts"

"ou've probably heard the latest brain research focused on cementing learning that says that drawing something can help a person better remember it. This works regardless of the age of the student or the content he/she is trying to master. And, good news for folks like me who can't draw a straight line, the benefits of drawing are not dependent on the students' level of artistic talent, suggesting that this strategy may work for all students, not just ones who are able to draw well. So when we draw, we encode the memory in a very rich way, layering together the visual memory of the image, the kinesthetic memory of our hand drawing the image, and the semantic memory that is invoked when we engage in meaning-making. In combination, this greatly increases the likelihood that the concept being drawn will later be recalled. (Source: https://www.edutopia.org/article/science-drawing-and-memory)"

"This December will again host the Hour of Code, a one-hour introduction to programming designed to demystify the subject and show that anyone can be a maker, a creator, and an innovator. Last year, almost 300,000 students (age 4-104) participated from over 180 countries and wrote almost 20 billion lines of code. The 200,000+ teachers involved came away believing that, of all their education tools, coding was the best at teaching children to think. It's easy to see why when you look at fundamental programming concepts:"

"This year has been a marathon for teachers. They've faced constant changes and big challenges at every turn. It's been hard to teach into the abyss of black screens and muted microphones or navigate the hybrid landscape with our attention split between students at home and in person at the same time. Or the challenge of keeping students socially distanced with the constant reminders to keep their masks on. We miss the little things like fist bumps and high fives and the smiles on students' faces when they have that "aha" moment. Teaching has been a marathon. However, at the end of this marathon, there are different levels of tired. Some people are simply exhausted. They have crossed the finish line and they are placing their hands over their head with a mix of gratitude that it's over and a sense of pride over facing a huge challenge. These teachers are worn out and need rest. Other teachers are injured. These teachers have finished the marathon but they're hurting. They have experienced is genuine injustice and it has shaken them to core. Many have faced trauma. These teachers need more than just rest. They need healing. I made this continuum for myself to think through whether I'm tired or actually injured. This isn't scientific or research-based. It's just a tool I made for myself years ago and I thought I'd share it. You can see it in the video below:"

"A FREE Online Conference For Teachers To Help Encourage, Inspire, and Equip You For Success. Go behind the scenes and learn from over 60 amazing educators and speakers. Never before has this line up of speakers ever been assembled together for one event.  October 28 - November 2, 2019"

"Say you're trying to solve a sudoku. You look at the various numbers that fill the squares and begin to work your way through the lines and boxes bit by bit, adding values and searching for any unused digits. If the puzzle is easy, you may be able to brute-force a solution. But what if the sudoku is a bit more challenging? As you look at the puzzle, you may notice how numbers seem to be arranged just so. A number here, a number there… In fact, by recognizing the arrangement of the numbers, you're able to solve the sudoku lightning fast. What's going on? It's all in the pattern."

"No matter your position in education, you have gone through some form of professional development. In many cases, the act of being "developed" comes in a variety of standard types such as workshops, mandated PD days, presentations, conferences, book studies, or keynotes. Many of these are often the one and done variety or conducted in a drive-by manner. Now, don't get me wrong; some educators find value in the experiences I have outlined above and have gone on to change their respective practice for the better. However, I would say an equal amount have found little to no benefit. The bottom line is that all educators yearn for quality professional learning as opposed to development that leads to sustained improvements in teaching, learning, and leadership. The image below from Katie Martin sums up nicely what educators want out of professional learning.  "

"WINTER GARDEN, Fla. - On the wall of a classroom that is home to the West Orange High School TikTok club, large loopy words are scrawled across a whiteboard: "Wanna be TikTok famous? Join TikTok club." It's working. "There's a lot of TikTok-famous kids at our school," said Amanda DiCastro, who is 14 and a freshman. "Probably 20 people have gotten famous off random things." The school is on a quiet palm-tree-lined street in a town just outside Orlando. A hallway by the principal's office is busy with blue plaques honoring the school's A.P. Scholars. Its choir director, Jeffery Redding, won the 2019 Grammy Music Educator Award. Amanda was referring to a different kind of stardom: on TikTok, a social media app where users post short funny videos, usually set to music, that is enjoying a surge in popularity among teenagers around the world and has been downloaded 1.4 billion times, according to SensorTower. "

"You may have heard of play. It's that thing children do - the diverse range of unstructured, spontaneous activities and behaviours. Children play in many ways, including by exploring movements, constructing with equipment, creating games, using imagination and chasing others around a playground. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child recognises play as every child's basic right. But play is becoming extinct. Global studies, across generations, have confirmed outdoor children's play has been declining, across all age groups, for decades. Play is every child's basic right. from shutterstock.com Unstructured play improves learning and social and physical development. Providing a variety of play options, improved play access and fewer restrictions can encourage children to engage in physical activity with peers in line with their imaginations."

"While teachers may always be the best line of defense for students falling behind, busy schedules don't always permit the special attention and feedback that students need. That's where artificial intelligence-powered teaching assistants might come in handy. "These intelligent tools can adapt pacing based on the student's ability … and provide targeted, corrective feedback in case the student makes mistakes, so that the student can learn from them," states an eSchool News report released earlier this year. "These tools also gather actionable insights and information about a student's progress and report the data back to the teacher." Understandably, there is still some hesitation at the idea of using this technology, as education professionals fear the day robots will replace teachers. However, as Thomas Arnett, a writer at the Christensen Institute, explains in his report, Teaching in the Machine Age, these advances are not meant to replace teachers but help them bring students to new heights. "Innovations that commoditize some elements of teacher expertise also supply the tools to raise the effectiveness of both non-experts and expert teachers to new heights and to adapt to the new priorities of a 21st-century workforce and education system," writes Arnett. Schools have already begun to adopt machine learning initiatives to help teachers and students fill learning gaps, and the results have been received well so far."

"If only everything could be simple.  Life is anything but an easy journey.  While this, for the most part, has been manageable in the past, the pandemic has upended professional and personal lives.  Just when there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, a new variant materializes.  For now, Omicron is the current curveball.  As I write this post on the first day of 2022, I can't help but reflect on the resilience educators showed the year before.  They stepped up to the plate every time for kids and each other because that is in their DNA.  As the curveballs kept coming, they hit them.  In the midst of immense adversity, they persevered.  What the future holds, no one can know for sure.  Many schools have or will be making the decision to revert back to some form of remote learning.  While this can be frustrating and challenging, educators have been here before.  The silver lining is that lessons learned in the past can be leveraged to make it a smoother process.  There were many successes when it comes to remote learning that have value now and will for years to come.  I made sure to capture these in chapter 6 of Disruptive Thinking in Our Classrooms.  Good teaching and leadership shine through no matter the circumstance.  If you are in need of remote learning resources I have you covered. Just click HERE. "

Is this really a problem, or is it how your time is spent on-line?